Ethiopia Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn elected as African Union Chairman

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. PHOTO/File

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn was elected by African heads of state as chairman of the African Union today, replacing Benin’s President Yayi Boni.

Mr. Hailemariam Desalegn, 47, who became leader of Ethiopia after the death from illness of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in August, will serve a one-year term as head of the African Union (AU).

The 54-member continental bloc’s assembly is meeting in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. The African Union faces the following challenges on the continent: including harnessing the rapid economic growth for the benefit of Africans; security challenges, including the al-Qaeda-linked invasion in northern Mali, and tension between South Sudan and Sudan which are in the process of implementing agreements on borders.

“We should do everything possible to help restore constitutional order in Mali and safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country,” Hailemariam Desalegn said.

The Addis Ababa-based African Union Commission is headed by South Africa’s Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who was elected for a four-year term in July and is the first woman to head the organization’s secretariat.